Course Management Systems

The following systems provide an encompassing set of features to facilitate communication and coursework, while requiring very little technical knowledge. Features include:

Online quizzes and assignments

Gradebook for reporting individual assignment grades

Announcements and mailing lists

Document sharing for course materials

Discussion board and chat room

Automatic roster integration (requires access to REGIS)

Sakai: Available to all faculty on all campuses, Sakai is a highly flexible service that is useful for course web sites as well as committee work and other projects. Sakai has numerous options for enabling group work, including a built in "wiki" (collaborative writing space). Sakai is created and maintained by a consortium of universities and colleges. http://sakai.rutgers.edu/

eCollege: Available to all faculty on all campuses, eCollege is supported by the Office of Continuous Education and Outreach. eCollege has a much more structured approach to course sites than Sakai does, and is well suited for courses that are fully online. http://ecollege.rutgers.edu

Single Purpose Tools

For faculty who do not need or want a full course site, the following provide specific services for communicating with students, or for supplementing existing course sites.

SAS Gradebook: An easy-to-use, simple site for recording assignment grades and feedback for students. Students who log in to the site can only see their own grades. The use of SAS Gradebook or a similar feature in one of the course management systems is the only acceptable method of posting course grades on the web or other public space. http://gradebook.rutgers.edu

RAMS (Rutgers Automated Mailing System): RAMS will create a mailing list of your students (based on roster access in REGIS), allowing faculty to send email to a single address that reaches all of their students. Faculty do not need to collect or maintain student addresses, RAMS automatically uses any address that the student lists in the Rutgers Directory. http://rams.rutgers.edu/

Refworks: a web-based bibliographic management tool, integrated with the Rutgers Library system so that searches in the catalog or indices can be saved and organized, with proper references and often links to the full text of articles. Refworks allows sharing of bibliographies; an instructor can create a bibliography for students to use, or use Refworks to review bibliographies created by students. Refworks includes a tool for use when writing papers that formats references and bibliographies appropriately according to several style guides. http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/refworks/refworks.shtml

iTunes U: Audio and video materials can be distributed to students by using iTunes U, a service that allows students to review the material on their computers or by automatically loading the material onto their iPods or other devices. Faculty can restrict the material to the students in their course, or optionally make anything on iTunes U available to the public at large, accessible to anyone who uses iTunes. http://itunes.rutgers.edu/ Rutgers also has a Youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/Rutgers

This year the NB Faculty Council Teaching Conference is co-sponsored by the University Senate. It will kick off the University-wide discussion of the Draft Academic Integrity Policy. Speakers will include Martha Cotter, Chair of the Academic Integrity committee, guests from Penn State and University of Maryland will present academic integrity policies and procedures from their academic institutions, followed by an open discussion of the draft policy led by a panel of faculty, students, and staff from all Rutgers campuses. All faculty, students and staff are invited.